Western European insurgencies post-WWII

Cook

Banned
Agreed, suggest you Google Italy’s Red Army Faction.

Bader-Meinhof Gang.

The Basque Separatist movement in Spain.

Communists in Greece.

Then into the 1970’s you get the PLO (Black September etc) operating in Europe.

What time frame were you talking?

As to alternatives that would have been entertaining, how about;
The Welsh Liberation Army.
Or the Brittany Communist Party’s armed wing, the Brittan People’s Liberation Army.
And we shouldn’t forget the Sicilian Army of National Liberation, receiving enormous amounts of Money and weapons from certain families in Chicago and New York.
 
As far as timeframe goes, I'm thinking about something that will last as long as to the present, like how we're still dealing with the aftermath of the conflict in Northern Ireland today, and the Basques are still restive. I'm definitely interested in how ethnic/lingual/nationalist minorities in Europe could cause trouble, but would any of them be as potentially as deadly as the IRA?
 
The Basque conflict is often under-estimated outside of the region. Fuller research on that might find its what you're looking for

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The Basque conflict is often under-estimated outside of the region. Fuller research on that might find its what you're looking for


If anything, it is overestimated. Only two posts above, Strategos makes it look as if it was some kind of popular intifada against the spaniards, when in fact ETA is today only a minority group among basque nationalists, most basques do not care about independence and wish ETA would just disappear; and ETA is no more than a glorified mafia anymore.
 
If anything, it is overestimated. Only two posts above, Strategos makes it look as if it was some kind of popular intifada against the spaniards, when in fact ETA is today only a minority group among basque nationalists, most basques do not care about independence and wish ETA would just disappear; and ETA is no more than a glorified mafia anymore.

Well, I would agree that most Basques wish ETA would disappear. That in itself influences what their public opinion about independence is, since it is all too often equated in the media with support of terrorism.

I'd go as far as saying that most people who do care about independence -whether they admit so publicly or not- wish ETA would disappear as soon as possible.

As to how many they really are these days, as long as ETA and its political arm (1) keep the banner of independence hostage to their own nefarious(2) ends, the question of how many care about independence is not properly answerable.

A thought just came to me: back in the 80s, the Spanish government allegedly(3) funded a CT operation, GAL, against ETA.

Whiskypedia's article on the GAL. A starter point for those interested.

To say it was a Very Bad Idea is an understatement.

Then how about an Abysmally Bad Idea: get another Mafia-like group as shock troops to fight them (as in the Union Corse's help against the OAS in The Day of the Jackal)?

Now that would be a political Chernobil...


(1) With whichever names they are allowed to have this week before they are shut down by court order
(2) I just love that word. It successfully covers a multitude of sins. Drug trafficking, racketeering, theft, kidnap, extortion, murder. The only three things they haven't done is being SGAE members, dumping hazardous waste or dealing in child pornography. And I'm not sure about the first two.
(3) Now that is another word that covers a lot of ground. It's not that I'm saying they did, but they are said to have done it. By someone.
 
Have the communists lead a French revolution as Allied forces moves in, make them come into conflict with "the new occupier" and, voilà, its Greece all over again.
 
If anything, it is overestimated. Only two posts above, Strategos makes it look as if it was some kind of popular intifada against the spaniards, when in fact ETA is today only a minority group among basque nationalists, most basques do not care about independence and wish ETA would just disappear; and ETA is no more than a glorified mafia anymore.

But you can't deny that out of all of the nationalist movements in Western Europe, the ETA is the most active and violent even to this day, with the exception of the Irish. I mean sure there's the Red Army Faction and the various leftist/anarchist groups in Greece, but there's not much else besides them.

And I said the Basques "were restive." That is open to interpretation.
 

Cook

Banned
Didn’t the French Communist Partisans declare a Socialist Republic in the South after German Army Group G pulled out and prior to the American and Free French landings of Operation Dragoon?

The Communists were the most effective Partisans in France. If they’d chosen to go to ground again on instructions from Moscow you have the opportunity for an interesting alternate time line.
 
What about some sort of widespread anger at the Italian government if Operation: Gladio somehow was leaked out after the P2 lodge scandal?

Okay, forget the Ireland-style uprising idea. Who were the most violent + capable + tenacious paramilitary anti-government groups, besides the IRA, ETA, FLNC, and RAF?
 
Last edited:
What about some sort of widespread anger at the Italian government if Operation: Gladio somehow was leaked out after the P2 lodge scandal?

Okay, forget the Ireland-style uprising idea. Who were the most violent + capable + tenacious paramilitary anti-government groups, besides the IRA, ETA, FLNC, and RAF?
:confused::)Sorry, "RAF" means "Royal Air Force" to me... Which would be an interesting PoD of it's own, eh?

Yes, I know it's Red Army Faction (or equivalent in German or Italian), but still...
 
Greece fought one during/just after WWII and given the close proximity to the eastern block, they could have fought another on ideological grounds I suppose.

And I somehow think the other South European states are more likely then the North European states.
 
So which countries in Europe (outside of the Balkans) have violent ethnic/nationalist separatists? I'd say the U.K., France, and Spain. Why not Italy? Or Germany?
 
So which countries in Europe (outside of the Balkans) have violent ethnic/nationalist separatists? I'd say the U.K., France, and Spain. Why not Italy? Or Germany?

Well Italy, apart some shenighans from the Lega in the recent decades and some group in Sicily in the immediate aftermath of WWII (who were little and supported by the mafia) valued enough is unity, was enough ethnically omogenous or simply too much apathic or disinterested to fight for the separation of some parts.
The only exception is the South Tyrol during the 70's independentist groups used terrorist tattics but was all low scale and was resolved by pouring more money in the Tyrol, giving them more local autonomy...and they understand that if they were reunited with Austria they were basically treated and considered as the their south Italy and alone they are not economical viable so even if from time to time there are some indepentist talk they are more bargain chip against the central government, none are taking them seriously now.
 
Hmmm, and I guess Germany was busy being divided for most of the second half of the 20th century to have separatists trying to take any more parts out of it.

Though now that I think about it, I've been wondering why there aren't Flemish/Walloon terrorist groups attacking each other in Belgium.
 
Top